Marcos says PH promoter of peace, amid concerns over Russia trade backlash

President Bongbong Marcos today admitted concern over possible backlash over the country and ASEAN's desire to increase trade with Russia as it may be seen by other countries as possibly funding the war against Ukraine.

"Certainly, that's a concern. And it's not something, as I said, as I've always said, the Philippines is one of the, if not the greatest sponsor, supporter for peace. And not only in our region but everywhere else," Marcos told reporters in Kazan, Russia on the sidelines of the ASEAN-Russia Commemorative Summit.

"Certainly that is not something that we do not like to be accused of. And would not like to be part of. We will certainly not want to be part of any system that furthers conflict anywhere in the world. Those are the decisions, some of them very nuanced decisions, that we will have to be making in the future," the President added.

Marcos, however, emphasized that the country's trade with Russia is too small to be funding conflict anywhere in the world.

"In terms of the volume of trade, for example, that we have to get from Russia, it comprises such a small part of their general revenue generation that it clearly cannot be said that it is funding conflict anywhere. We will just have to be careful to make sure that we are not inadvertently becoming part of a system that is encouraging war in any way," Marcos explained.

According to the president, bilateral trade between the Philippines and Russia is only at $5 billion, lower compared to Russia's trade with ASEAN which, Marcos said, is close to $20 billion.

"One of the things that we recognize is that there's so much more that we can do. Because I suppose we still have that kind of institutional momentum from the bipolar power arrangement around the world where we, the Philippines, were very much aligned with the United States, on the other side of the Soviet Union, which is a similar situation for, at that time, all countries around the world," Marcos stated.

"The level of trade and engagement in the traditional areas is still quite low because, again, of our continued attachment perhaps to the old way of doing business," the president added.

Marcos said that this manner of thinking has changed.

"We have shed that. We have shed that kind of idea. And we look at the world in a much more, much different way than we did in 1976 when we first signed our agreement, our diplomatic agreement with the then Soviet Union. And so we are adjusting that," the president said.

When asked what brought about this change, Marcos replied, "it was a recognition that the world has changed. That does not, that it's not the way the world is formed anymore."

"The traditional power structures and the traditional powers are no longer the powers that exist when, for example, the United Nations was formed right after the war. So we, the Philippines, is just responding, adjusting to the new reality," he added.

Marcos also disclosed that during the ASEAN-Russia summit, there were discussions about shifting from a bipolar world to one that is multipolar.

"Very early on, I think you will remember, I already said that the Philippines no longer subscribes to a bipolar world where you have to choose one side over the other. And during this summit, there was a lot of talk about multipolarity, the multi polar world that we now have to deal with, which may be a bit more complex but it also provides more opportunities than we had before. And that I think was one of the main results and findings that we arrived at during the summit," Marcos said. — BAP, GMA News